Because the guitar acts as my "Editor". My hand will think twice about playing gratuitous notes, it wants to use the effort only on the good ones..

Secondly, as Roy Buchannan told me, the guitar will ring so much better with the strings up high.

Third, when bending, I can get the string right in the middle of my fingertip, on the "meat", and really get some power and control of the bend, as well as a singing vibrato at the top of the bend, like Freddie King in the 70's.With low action, you're pushing the bend around with your fingerprint, and don't have the same control..

That's an interesting theory, but it doesn't fly for me personally. I got small hands and like to play with a light touch. I want my guitar to HELP me to play what I hear in my head. Not hinder me.

I play with a bog standard set of 9 through 46, medium-low action and sometimes even tuned down a half step. Guitar plays like butter with accurate and effortless bending, vibrato and picking. I manage to make that sound pretty darn good (even with my mediocre skills ).

Give me my guitar strung with 11s or more and a high action and it becomes a chore to play. I'm sure the guitar will resonate better and all that, but what good does that do me if it's virtually unplayable?

On another note about tone: I was in a guitar store the other day and they had a 100$ Chinese Tele knock-off on the wall. Didn't look very good and the plate was loose. The wires were sticking out! But I plugged it into a silverface Super Reverb they had in the shop and suddenly... That ugly, broke-down little knock-off came alive and spoke to me! Brought a big fat smile to my face. I know the amp was probably a big factor, but talk about THAT tone... THAT was THE tone.